P90X Insanity Hybrid: Pure Cardio

Insanity's pure cardio is another high intensity cardio workout. In this workout, it is nothing but intense cardio exercise variations that will burn off the fat. Once again, the warm up was a killer and I had to take frequent breaks just to catch my breath lol. The more rounds we had to do, the more we had to run and move at a faster pace. This workout in a way tests your agility and speed as to how long and how fast you can perform the workout. By the end of the workout, my legs were done! If your looking to shed the pounds faster, then this will definitely put you to work.

Stay tuned for more...

P90X Insanity Hybrid: Legs & Back / Abs

P90X's legs and back consist of leg exercises, as well as pull ups for the back exercises. Certain leg exercises I can do, i.e. calf-raise squats, step back lunges, alternating side lunges, sneaky lunge, toe roll iso lunge, croucho walk, and calf raises. I guess in a sense it sounds easy when you think about it. However, I have bad balance. I was told by a doctor when I was younger that I would need a brace for my knees because I couldn't hold my balance. Additionally, I am "slew footed". What that means is that when I stand, my feet points outward. Because of this, this is kinda an issue when I try to effectively perform leg workouts. But with practice makes perfect right?

As for the back workouts, once again I have to use the resistance bands in place of the pull up bar. My reaction to the back workouts is still the same...they were easy to perform.

Stay tuned for more...

P90X Insanity Hybrid: Cardio Recovery

Insanity's cardio recovery is perhaps the easiest workout out of the entire insanity portion of the program. Cardio recovery takes a break from the high intensity cardio workouts during "recovery week" (when your muscles takes a break and heal). It consist of mostly stretching. After doing cardio recovery, I didn't realize how flexible I was. It really helps loosen up the muscles in my legs (since your legs is the tool of performing cardio workouts). Overall, I really like the stretching. I could do it all day if I really wanted to lol.

Stay tuned for more...

P90X Insanity Hybrid: Shoulders & Arms / Abs

P90X's shoulders and arms is my favorite workout out of the whole program. This workout focuses on weight training; building your biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Those are the three target areas that I want to improve on. I love doing the alternating shoulder press, in & out bicep curls, concentration curls, in & out straight shoulder flys, and the congdon curls. However, the harder weight training workouts are deep swimmers press, upright rows, tricep kickbacks, seated shoulder flys, and crouching cohen curls. Whenever I do this workout, I do get a good burn from them. It beats the standard weight training variations that you may be accustomed to.

Stay tuned for more...

P90X Insanity Hybrid: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Now where should I begin with this? lol. Cardio is perhaps the most challenging for me during this fitness journey. The reason why I say this is because I have bronchial asthma and that tends to effect my breathing. Nevertheless, cardio is a necessity to burning fat in order to build the muscle that you desire. Insanity's plyometric cardio circuit is considered to be a "jump training" exercise which is commonly done by athletes. You do alot of running, sprinting, squating, and jumping. The funny thing about all the insanity workouts is that just the warm up itself can wear you out lol. It is true what the commercial says! It will definitely make you break out in a serious pool of sweat. When performing this workout, I often had to take frequent breaks to catch my breath. The more intense the workout got, more I lacked energy and began to feel tired. Yet, I still pushed through the best way I could until the workout was over. Once I had finished, I did feel a little sense of accomplishment. Overall, this is something you definitely have to put your all into. if you naturally have alot of energy and possess determination to push harder, then you will have a greater chance of getting through this.

Stay tuned for more...

P90X Insanity Hybrid: Chest & Back / Abs

P90X's Chest & Back consist of push up and pull up workout. Because I don't have a door frame in my basement (I perform my workouts in the basement), I had to substitute the pull up bar with resistance bands. With the push up portion of chest and back, I admit it was a tough task. My body wasn't used to the stress on my arms. Furthermore, it took a lot for me to build up my upper body strength so that I could effectively do the push ups. As time progressed, my arms started to get used to the tension of doing push ups. I could do the standard push up, wide fly push ups, and military style push up. However, it was more so a challenge to do the "dive bomber" push up, decline push up and the diamond push up.

As for the pull up portion of chest and back, my take on that is rather neutral. Due to the fact that I am using resistance bands over the pull up bar, performing those workouts were easy. Yet, I didn't get too much of a burn out of using the resistance bands. Perhaps if I could anchor my pull up bar in my basement, it would definitely enhance the quality of doing pull ups. In addition to the pull ups and push ups, there were a couple of workouts called "heavy pants" and "lawnmowers", which required you to use weights. I definitely got a burn from doing those 2 workouts.

Stay tuned for more...

PBS Fitness Journey (2012 Edition)

After many various attempts, on January 1st, 2012, I've started what is called the "P90X/Insanity Hybrid" program. It's a program that consists of both cardio and weight training segments from Beachbody's P90X and Insanity fitness programs.


Here is how the P90X/Insanity Hybrid schedule looks like:




Check out my video...my fitness introduction: